Connections by Exact Media

Today’s guest is a former Shark Tank competitor whose idea was rejected and business name was teased. He didn’t give up, though, seeing a real opportunity to disrupt the flower industry and has successfully done so – even having one of the Sharks return, invest in his company and have him do the floral arrangements for this Shark’s wedding.  He is John Tabis, the Founder & CEO of The Bouqs Company. John believes so strongly that in order for a consumer brand to get off the ground you have to have a great story and a lot of hustle – two things he has an abundance of. Starting the company with a co-founder half-way around the world – communicating by WhatsApp, Skype and email – John built a brand with consumers at the heart of it, simplifying the flower-buying process and telling a wonderful story of where each stem come from and who are the people cultivating them. John shares many of his personal tactics that have helped him scale the business to success, his passion for big picture ideas and much more.

Today’s guest started literally in his garage, fulfilling orders made on an app he developed himself with his partners. He is Chieh Huang, CEO of Boxed, a membership-free wholesale retailer that offers direct-to-consumer delivery of bulk goods. Like every startup, Chieh had to be very selective of what areas to scale and when, eventually coming up with the idea to hire robotic engineers to innovate new and exciting ways to fulfill customer orders. Though highly automated, Chieh has always believed in giving the customer a personal touch and so he ensured every order was sent with a hand-written thank you note. Chieh shares insights into his management tactics – having a very strong opinion against micro-managing, speaking as a former micro-manager – and how he takes the time to be present for his team members from the bottom to the top. His energy is quite infectious and I hope you enjoy listening to Chieh as much as I enjoyed chatting with him. Please welcome, Chieh Huang. This podcast is brought to you by Exact Media.

Today’s guest is in constant pursuit of helping other entrepreneurs reach their goals and for consumers to live healthier, happier lives. He is Gautam Gupta, Co-Founder of snack subscription service, NatureBox. Gautam set out to disrupt how people consumed snack food, by creating healthy options and delivering them in a simple way. Given trends towards healthier eating, he felt the business model was going to be an instant success but quickly discovered he first had to build a thorough understanding of how consumers purchase snacks, as well as the retailer buying journey in order to get placement on store shelves.   Since successfully growing NatureBox, Gautuam continues to advise other entrepreneurs on how to create a unique differentiated product and a compelling customer experience – both of which, he believes, are the biggest drivers to success today, over and above location and marketing. He shares his personal tactics on how to approach entrepreneurial problems and his love of teaching really shows. Please welcome, Gautam Gupta This podcast is brought to you by Exact Media.

Today’s guest on the Podcast (brought to you by Exact Media) is an avid outdoorsman, entrepreneur and wine aficionado. His approach to business is very matter-of-fact, he doesn’t mince words when it comes to big pivots like rebranding and he’s quick to learn and adapt. He is Geoff McFarlane, Co-Founder and CEO of Winc. Geoff’s story definitely suggests entrepreneurship was woven into his DNA, with both his dad and older brother starting successful ventures, Geoff starting a mobile DJ company in high school that he later sold for a profit and realizing very early on that he was ‘unhireable’ and more passionate about paving his own path. He shares insights into some of other early ventures, including a real estate development company which he’d doubled-down on right before the economic crisis of 2008, forcing him to make some serious shifts in what came next. While searching for a wine gift for his friends, Geoff saw an opportunity ripe for the picking, finding many other wine clubs and subscription models too restrictive or pricey – so he set out to create an ideal club that catered to everyone. He shares his tactics for success, how he built and scaled a brand from the ground up and some suggestions on wine varietals you may enjoy.  Please welcome, Geoff McFarlane.

Today’s guest on the Podcast (brought to you by Exact Media) is an avid outdoorsman, entrepreneur and wine aficionado. His approach to business is very matter-of-fact, he doesn’t mince words when it comes to big pivots like rebranding and he’s quick to learn and adapt. He is Geoff McFarlane, Co-Founder and CEO of Winc. Geoff’s story definitely suggests entrepreneurship was woven into his DNA, with both his dad and older brother starting successful ventures, Geoff starting a mobile DJ company in high school that he later sold for a profit and realizing very early on that he was ‘unhireable’ and more passionate about paving his own path. He shares insights into some of other early ventures, including a real estate development company which he’d doubled-down on right before the economic crisis of 2008, forcing him to make some serious shifts in what came next. While searching for a wine gift for his friends, Geoff saw an opportunity ripe for the picking, finding many other wine clubs and subscription models too restrictive or pricey – so he set out to create an ideal club that catered to everyone. He shares his tactics for success, how he built and scaled a brand from the ground up and some suggestions on wine varietals you may enjoy.  Please welcome, Geoff McFarlane.

Today’s guest is a real treat, who brings a real passion to what he does – that started from a very early age with a hilarious game of hide-and-seek – he is Kristian von Rickenbach, the Co-Founder of direct-to-consumer mattress company, Helix Sleep.  In a crowded marketplace, with several large competitors all launching around the same time, Kristian saw an opportunity to differentiate himself by not offering a one-size-fits all mattress, but rather a personalized experience for each customer based on their sleep preferences. He wasn’t always an entrepreneur – without a real plan after college he explored finance for a bit, before settling into a career in consulting for a variety of businesses. Ultimately, a chance encounter with one of his co-founders during a networking event sparked the idea to tackle an under-serviced, slow-moving industry.  Kristian shares his personal tactics that have helped him scale the business to success, including how many hours of sleep he gets each night. Please welcome, Kristian von Rickenbach.

Today’s guest has disrupted the home security industry through a unique D2C model that started by targeting the apartment rental market. He is the Co-Founder and CEO of SimpliSafe, Chad Laurans. Hailing from a long line of entrepreneurs including both grandfathers and his dad, it was always a high likelihood he’d become one as well. From a very early age Chad loved to tinker with things, take them apart and re-build them, like remote control car engines to make them faster, or teaching himself to code at the age of 12 in order to build one of the first online forums back in the days of dial-up internet. After college, he went into a career in finance that ultimately helped him build an understanding of what it takes to sustain a business, leading him to the decision to bootstrap SimpliSafe. As he got off the ground, he had many learnings as entrepreneurs do, including the discovery that he could scale the business even quicker, by including home owners as part of his target market – and now SimpliSafe is on track to expand internationally. We talk about some of his personal tactics for success, including how he focuses on delivering real value to his customers, growing a business with his wife as his founding partner and more. Please welcome, Chad Laurans.

Today’s guest is an incredible leader: the CEO of kids’ clothing subscription service, Kidbox. Her entrepreneurial hustle was carved out from a young age, where she took on a newspaper delivery route at just 9 years old. Since then she had a varied and successful career, getting her start by running eCommerce for Tween brands in the late 90’s and early 2000’s and, in spite of the internet bubble burst, she saw a that there would be a real shift in consumer purchasing decisions, from retail to eCommerce. She climbed the marketing and eCommerce ladder for luxury retail at Ralph Lauren, Tory Burch and then Chicos, eventually meeting the Founder of Kidbox, Haim Dabah, to whom it was clear she was the right fit to lead Kidbox's growth. Miki immediately bought into their social mission to impact the lives of 1 million children in need and learned over the course of her career to trust her gut and speak up for causes she believed in. We talk about her tools for success, including using data science and personalization to deliver a unique customer experience with Kidbox and how standing for a social mission helped her build a thriving brand from the ground up.

Ep. 26: Ken Worzel, President of Nordstrom.com

Ep. 25: Marc Speichert, Global Chief Digital Officer at GSK

Ep. 24: Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos

Ep. 23: Linda Boff, CMO of GE

This episode is brought to you by Exact Connections. Acquire customers by partnering with online retailers and placing an offer in their outgoing parcels. Visit www.exactconnections.com and click “Get Access” to launch your first customer acquisition campaign within 5 minutes.   Earlier this summer I had a chance to interview Bonin Bough and couldn't be happier to share his story as our first episode of our newest season of The Connections Leadership Series Podcast. Visit our website to find links to listen to it on iTunes, Stitcher and Google Play or listen to it on SoundCloud below. A little bit about Bonin Bough... Bonin is a man of many titles, he's the Host of LeBron James' TV Show on CNBC, Cleveland Hustle, Author of Txt Me: Your Phone Has Changed Your Life. Let’s Talk about It and -- in partnership with Michael Loeb (Co-Founder of Priceline.com) -- has become a leading seed-stage investor in Messaging startups. Prior to all of this, Bonin was the Chief Media & eCommerce Officer (a Title and role he created for himself) at Mondelez where he led global media buying for the $25 Billion + organization. For someone with so many responsibilities, he's surprisingly accessible. You can text him any time at 646-759-1837. Give it a shot. It might just take a little while for him to reply. On Career Management Bonin optimized each step of his career for Title and Span of Control. The money simply followed. Title was incredibly important as it gave Bonin additional weight and influence in the organization. A senior title became a stepping stone to even bigger opportunities at new companies. For example, because he was a Senior Director at Pepsi, he was recruited as a VP by Kraft and was given control of the organizations entire media buying organization. Later, Bonin leveraged this VP title into a C-Suite title he created himself at Mondelez, creating his own seat at the table as the Chief Media & eCommerce Officer at Mondelez. With a senior title came a larger span of control, which was particularly important for two reasons: The CEO has the largest span of control of an organization. If you aspire for that title one day, having a large span of control will give you the required experienced in building a team and trusting others to eventually one day meet the requirements of being a great CEO. When you have a large span of control, you inherently have the ability to make a much larger impact on an organization because of the breadth of resources you have access to. The larger your impact, the more likely you are to be noticed by senior leadership and promoted up the ranks as a result of your great work. Bonin took this a step further by focusing primarily on the "innovation" side of the business as often put him in a position to deliver breakout successes. Like great Rockstars, "you have to produce hits". Bonin had lots of them. On Great Leadership Bonin's mission as a leader was to be a platform for the success of those on his team. In his eyes, success as a leader was for the people on your team to become better than you. He particularly called out key members of his team such as Cynthia Chen (now Managing Director at General Mills China), Laura Henderson (now SVP of Marketing at BuzzFeed) and Farrah Bezner (now Head of New Business Ventures at Mondelez) who have all progressed to making a major impact in their respective organizations.

It’s one thing to be the Chief Marketing Officer of a large business but another thing to be the CMO of the world’s largest advertiser, P&G. I really enjoyed my latest interview with Jim Stengel who is the founder of The Jim Stengel Company and prior to that had a very successful career as the Global Marketing Officer (GMO) of P&G. In his seven years as the GMO, the company doubled its revenue. In today’s terms, the revenue he brought in during his tenure is equivalent to the revenue of approximately 30 AirBnBs. He has received more awards and recognitions than one could ever dream of. From being named onto Fortune’s Executive Dream Team to being the number one power player in marketing by AdAge through 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007. If there’s anyone who has reached the pinnacle of advertising and marketing, it’s Jim. What I took away from my interview with Jim was not all of the things that he accomplished professionally, but the importance of being a good human being. He’s incredibly humble and down to earth. He admits to the mistakes that he made in the early days as both a husband and a leader. He emphasizes the importance of his wife (who is #1) and the value he places on building relationships. Jim could have stopped after his career at P&G to relax and retire. Most people would have been more than happy with what he achieved. Instead, he’s continued to make it it his mission to help businesses and people reach their full potential.  Here are some of the highlights from our conversation: Jim hustled as a child. To get a job delivering the local paper, he had to lie that he was 12 years old when he was only 10. It was the only way he could get the job. In addition to delivering the paper, he mowed lawns, shoveled driveways, worked at a pizza joint and did a lot of other scrappy jobs to make some money. His first grown-up job was with Time Inc. where he was hired into the books division.  To my surprise, Jim was actually rejected for an internship at P&G. He didn’t make the cut but he didn’t give up and eventually got hired. It was a good thing that P&G didn't make the same mistake twice. On his first job, he was tasked with the launch of a new product, Duncan Hines. He was given the task to find a way to sample to every household in the US. With a $60 million sampling budget at his disposal, he managed to hire every delivery truck in the country to help him deliver the cookies. On rookie leadership mistakes, he talks about the importance of seeing what’s around the corner and what’s ahead of you. Too many leaders fall into the trap of tackling daily operational activities but fail to deliberately spend time thinking about the future of their business. On other business advice he would give, it would be that you can never fire too fast. When it comes to people related issues, you usually know in your gut as to what the decision should be. One bad apple on a team can infect many people and it’s important to remove those people immediately.  The only time he ever considered leaving P&G was after his first year. Time Inc. called him back and offered him a job that would triple his salary. What kept him at P&G was the opportunity to learn and grow. From then on, he had a principle to never speak to head hunters.  He’s a big believer that the key to life is resiliency. People who have bounced back from setbacks in their careers or personal life. These people are often the happiest people and have lived the most rewarding lives. His WFIO (We’re F&cked, it’s over) moment happened in the second year when he was running the business in Czechoslovakia. He was the only one on the team who didn’t have share growth that year. It was the moment when he thought that his job was on the line. But John Pepper, the CEO of P&G at the time, spent five minutes with him and provided a few words of assurance that the company believed in him and that he believed that he would get through it. Jim never forgot that conversation and it changed the way he viewed his situation. He encourages leaders to never underestimate the impact that they can have on their people. And yes, the business he ran turned around and the rest is history. Jim met his wife and proposed to her only three months later. To help seal the deal on his proposal, he made her a physical scrapbook documenting their experiences together. He’s what I call a “closer”. On mistakes he made as a husband, he talks about the times in his life when he didn’t always put his wife as number one and took her for granted with work, children and other obligations. Life gets in the way but one should always put their spouse as number one.  On routines, exercise is a non-negotiable. He might sacrifice sleep or eating, but he will never sacrifice exercise. He tries to change it up all the time and will do water aerobics, tennis, yoga, a HIIT class, or something different. On the bucket list, he’s hoping to still play Roger Federer a game of tennis. He recently played Ana Ivanovic (the former number one ranked female tennis player). I took that as a humble brag. =P There’s a lot more from this interview so make sure to listen to the full interview. Either go to the SoundCloud link below or subscribe to our iTunes channel.

On our latest podcast, we interviewed Douwe Bergsma, CMO of Georgia-Pacific. He shared his unique background with us, including growing up in a low-income family in the Netherlands, and his journey from P&G to Georgia-Pacific. Listen to the interview now to hear his thoughts on being an agent of change, why continuing to climb is so important, and how he decided to move to Atlanta with his wife.

Ep. 19: Karen Flavelle, CEO of Purdy's Chocolate

Ep. 17: Esi Eggleston Bracey President of Coty Consumer Beauty Division

Ep. 15: Best of the Podcast - Time Management

We interviewed JuE Wong, President at Elizabeth Arden, in our latest podcast. Wong shared important tips on managing your team, handling personal tragedy, and insight into how she handled raising a family with a fast paced, international career. Here are our top four favorite highlights:   On good management advice When asking JuE Wong what advice she wished she received when she was a first time manager, Wong mentioned that the most important lesson she learned was to actively groom a #2 that can support and grow alongside her in an organization. She reinforces this lesson today be ensuring her 8 to 10 direct reports have a #2 that they feel confident can represent them in executive meetings, and can speak on behalf of that overall function. Wong also advocates for giving your team a lot of leeway to succeed or fail on their own, but in the case of bad outcomes, always ensuring that you’ve put in place a safety net so that the entire team can fall and bounce-back together. A memorable example for her was when she was a trader at Cargill, she had a $200MM position in the market that she was very enthusiastic about. However, she was in over her head with that choice, and eventually was in a spot where she was facing massive financial losses. But unbeknownst to her, her boss had taken an opposite position to limit the overall company losses. This ensured that she still had a chance to learn and figure out stuff herself, while still not having long-term negative effects on the company. On having an owner’s mindset Regardless of your role in a company, Wong advocates that you should always think in terms of a P&L. Even if you are in PR or are an Office Assistant, you should think through what costs are you incurring for the organization and what kind of ROI are you getting on those investments. You can use budgets and a P&L this to stay disciplined in your role and to prove your value to the organization. On setting targets Wong always had great respect for sales people in her organization, and ensured that she only set targets which she herself could meet. She was proud to hold the record at Strivectin for having the most sales per hour while working the sales floor with individual customers. On dealing with personal tragedy In 2009, Wong’s husband passed away a few weeks into her first stint as a CEO, leading Astral Brands in Atlanta, Georgia. She’s become very comfortable talking about this tragedy in her life as she feels like, by sharing the story, more people can benefit from learning how she handled the situation. She reminds us all that we have choices. It’s up to us on how we view and move forward from situations -- good or bad. This time in her life ended up being very pivotal for her career. She believed the lessons she learned about how to work better with people as a result of this tragedy accelerated her career trajectory as CEO of Strivectin, and President at Elizabeth Arden.

Ep. 14: Michelle Peluso, Chief Marketing Officer at IBM